So the Discovery Deadline came and went and in typical fashion for TopFive, the Higher_Ups hadn’t made a decision yet. It came as no surprise because something of this magnitude and natural couldn’t be figured out in six weeks. And honestly, the six weeks was never about figuring out the logistics of transition and knowledge transfer, it was about money.
For MSM to work, it has to be cheaper than what TopFive was spending now, but the new firm (let’s call them TopperTwins) had to make money too. And all the people involved in this decision wanted their “I saved the company X dollars” bonuses.
We said keep the lights ON
During this time, we were in Keep The Lights On Mode. No new projects were approved and with people leaving every day, it was like a ghost town at the office.
Eventually that all was hammered out and the word was given that we would move to this model. No one was surprised by this. They wouldn’t tell anyone exactly when their last day was but we were told the transition had to be completed by March 1. They did promise that no one would come back from the holidays and be let go on Jan 1. (Of course the calendar was such that the first day back was Jan 4.)
No one factored the holidays or vacations or the fact that the firm shuts down for the last two weeks of the year into this transition schedule.
They also announced that some people would be retained in the New World Order and that an additional 30 positions would be available to apply for them. Translation: you get to apply for the job you are currently doing at the moment. Finally, if you don’t find anything with the New order, you can apply for any of the open positions TopperTwins has at the weekly job fairs.
I personally knew that I was not to be part of any of that. My skillset can be summed up as a Subject Matter Expert of a particular software. It is used primarily by law firms but TopFive was one of the few corporations that utilized it. But its use had dwindled in the time I was there and most of it had already been Sunsetted.
However, many of my colleges believed that given all the people who had departed, if they just hung around they would be hired on and have nothing to worry about. Spoiler Alert: it didn’t happen that way. Those 30 open positions? 25 of them were automatically filed before they were officially announced. I was already looking for a new job, but this made me ratch it up a notch.
Stay Tuned….
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This post was drafted a year or so ago, as these events were occurring. I waited to post this because I didn’t want to risk my job hunting efforts or reveal any information about my former company. The purpose of these posts aren’t to bash my former employer but to share my experience and hopefully educate people on the perils of Corporate America.
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